Reach Capacity (2020)
Produced, filmed and edited by Ericka Beckman
Vocals by Beckman/ Halpin
Compositing by Beth Warshafsky
Animation by Beckman/ Hart

In Reach Capacity, the rapacious world of the urban real-estate market takes on the form of a playfully obsessive, yet violently deterministic system. Combining mechanical musical numbers, digital objects, and board-game parameters, Ericka Beckman converts lower Manhattan into a giant Monopoly board upon which real-estate speculators and contracted labor compete for dominance in a programmatic dance. To see the future, follow the money. Shelby Shaw, New York Film Festival

Government and private corporate entities make decisions and play a structural role in what is fair game and what isn’t. The life of the individual is materially affected by these decisions. How can games create a possible alternative? EB

Reach Capacity was a critique of the game ‘Monopoly’ by re-envisioning the precursor to Monopoly called ‘The Landlords Game’ developed in the 1920s by a female game developer -Maggie Phillips- to teach people how to subvert a capitalist system. Reach Capacity is a film installation where the screen flips over mechanically, the same as Maggie’s gameboard.

Performing the Black Box: From You the Better to Reach Capacity by Valerie Verhack

“Fair Game” Knack Magazine, 2020

M Leuven – Artist talk